DAL management most likely knows what they are doing, with both freedom and pinnacle. I'm pretty certain that the statistics they are using are accurate, although as someone pointed out they may be using weak contract language to punish 9E for performance issues outside of their control. This is not nice, or particulary "fair" but it is legal.

It is entirely possible that DAL has thrown out the poor stats which could be blamed on them, and are basing their decision solely on performance which is directly attributable to mesa/pinnacle. My gut feeling is that mesa would have screwed themselves regardless of what DAL did, or did not, do.

Also, DAL might be basing the decision on numbers from several months ago, or longer. The contract probably says that if you fail to perform, you can get fired. There is probably nothing that says they can't wait for an extended period and THEN fire you for something that happened last year...effectively, if you screw up one single time then you are an "at will" subcontractor for the remainder of that contract. DAL can always pull that out of their hip pocket at any time...in fact, they LIKE it that way. The fact that you have improved since the original failure means nothing.

DAL was probably in a position to strongarm pinnacle into signing a weak contract, so they might not have had a choice (or they might just be stupid).

More than most other majors, DAL seems to have their poop in one sock. If they canx MY contract, I would be concerned. Yes, anybody is at risk right now.

The good news for 9E is that those 900's are more in demand than most RJ's.

I must be missing something here....I didnt realize stating a fact about ground ops was personally attacking the Mesaba pilot group.....or did I leave off my sarcasm hat this morning? :)

Absolute, full bore, sarcasm!!!:)

apology accepted :D just kidding i need my coffee/beer

I obviously don't fly for 9E so I can't speak for either DAL or 9E; but after flying CR9's out of ATL while being based and living in ATL for a solid year, not once did DAL ever cancel a single FLT of mine nor have I ever heard of DAL canceling a single SKW CR9 FLT so that they can either get their a/c out or in...............as a matter of fact the few times I can remember being delayed more than 15 minutes was due to the airport being closed (storms). I'm not saying it doesn't happen but only twice did my FLT get canceled. The first was caused by the ground crew who ran a cart into our parted a/c which accused substantial damage. My second was when we timed out as did many other mainline and regional carrier pilots due to a freak snow storm that hit ATL (it’s ATL, at best it snows once every few years) last January 16th.

But who knows, maybe DAL started laying the foundation for this cancellation attempt many months ago by assisting in 9E poor performance. I’m sure that once your lawyers start researching others performance vs. the number of DAL cancellations vs. the cancellation reasons; it should result in an easy argument on 9E behalf. I’m not confident that it will result in you guys retaining the flying but it should result in a pretty large settlement.

Best of luck guys.

Sorry to hear about this... This is not good for anyone. however little job security you thought you had.... right out the window. Best of luck... what happened with the arbitrator? did he change his ruling?

we just had a captain post part of his atl flying schedule on our pilot bored.

delta had him scheduled to do a TLH turn out of ATL. and guess how much flight time they gave him to get to tlh...

13 minutes!!!

GMAFB. they scheduled that flight to show 13 minutes of flight time. no wonder we couldn't get in and out on time. they think we are flying supersonic. then as soon as they fix our schdules the numbers go up and they try and cancel the contract.

You've not talk about ATL, are you? Unless things have changed in the last 3 months, 99% of the CR9 flights are all in concourse B with a select number of the gates being configured to support the CR9. I’ve seen a few come out of D (ramp 4) but there is only one DAL spot that has a jet way and can support the 900. All the other spots are too tight for the 900 to squeeze into. If anyone has the above problem it’s ASA seeing they have ops in ever concourse with the majority being out of C & D (Ramps 3, 4 & 5)

As for ATL terminal configuration, there is no terminal 1 or terminal 4. In order there's: T, A, B, C, D and E. So I assume you’re talking about some other airport and then you must be taking about 9E’s NWA contract and not DAL’s.

WOW, DAL's screwing you guys. The shortest turn I've had in the CR9 out of ATL was 26 minutes and the majority of the time they were 35 minutes plus.

I just don't understand why they've chosen to target you guys. That’s BS.

I'm sorry I forgot I had to be perfectly specific on this forum and have all terminals exactly right :)
Take it easy, I was just making a point that sometimes it is DAL's fault...in my own generic way